Mobile 3.0 gets German DVB-H licence

Mobile 3.0, a joint venture between German mobile TV wholesaler MFD and publishing house venture Neva Media, has been awarded a licence to operate the upcoming DVB-H platform in Germany.

T-Systems Media&Broadcast (TSMB), recently acquired by TDF, obtained the licence to build the network in October.

The mobile TV platform is expected to launch by Spring 2008 in time for the European Football Championship. The service will include about 15 TV channels. Public broadcasters ARD and ZDF and commercial stations RTL, SAT.1, Pro Sieben, VOX, n-tv and N24 are already on board. Regional programmes and radio services will also be offered.

The broadcasters lined up for the service include public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, commercial stations RTL, SAT.1, Pro Sieben, VOX, n-tv and N24 reports Rapid TV News. There’ll also be some multimedia radio services offered by Digital 5, bigBuddy and soccer Bundesliga channel kick.fm.

German Bundesrat against mandatory DVB-H

Broadband TV News reports that the German Bundesrat (upper house) has decided there should be no mandatory standard for mobile TV broadcasts.

This point of view is at odds with the European Commission, which wants to make adoption of the DVB-H standard compulsory.

Next year, a consortium of cellcos O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile plan to launch a nationwide DVB-H service in the country, but at present mobile TV provider Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland (MFD) already offers a commercial service using the DMB standard in some parts of the country. The Bundesrat also warned that such regulatory measures from Brussels could interfere with the free flow of information, the plurality of the media and cultural diversity.

DVB-H licensing coming soon in Germany

Reuters reports that a spokesperson for the directors’ conference of the state media authorities has stated that a national licence for mobile television using the DVB-H broadcast standard should be awarded by the end of this month. The interested parties – including a consortium comprising the three largest cellcos by subscribers, T-Mobile Deutschland, O2 Germany and Vodafone Germany – had until Friday to work on their proposals. The country’s cartel office will decide by 13 August whether to allow the wireless operators to join forces and compete for a licence against broadcasters Premiere, ProSiebenSat.1 and units of the RTL Group.